


Now The Wheel Has Turned Around

by clotpolesonly



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Laura Hale, Alpha Peter Hale, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Laura Hale Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:26:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26575978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clotpolesonly/pseuds/clotpolesonly
Summary: “He’s not here,” Stiles repeats. “He’s gone, Derek!”Laura is out of the car in an instant. She hears Derek’s panicked shout behind her, his warning for Stiles to run. She hopes it’s enough; he may be an abrasive little shit, but shelikesStiles. It would be a shame for him to die now just because they made the mistake of sending him in alone, thinking he would be safe.Laura really should know by now that they’reneversafe.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 82
Collections: Laura Hale Appreciation Week 2020





	Now The Wheel Has Turned Around

**Author's Note:**

> i decided to throw caution (and reasonable sleep schedules) to the wind and churn out a second fic for LHAW day 1. the idea has been plaguing me for probably 2 years now, haha. you'd think i would have a better title but NOOOO. i just had the Confrontation song from Les Mis lodge itself in my brain for this concept, so those are the lyrics we get, for better or for worse.

“Yeah, well, he’s not here either.”

At Stiles’ words, Derek goes completely still. Laura does too, a visceral sense of dread crawling down her spine before her thoughts can even catch up.

“What?” Derek asks. Maybe he shouldn’t have bothered, but Laura understands the need to clarify. To make absolutely sure before jumping to the conclusion they had both already landed on.

“He’s not here,” Stiles repeats. “He’s gone, Derek!”

Laura is out of the car in an instant. She hears Derek’s panicked shout behind her, his warning for Stiles to run. She hopes it’s enough; he may be an abrasive little shit, but she _likes_ Stiles. It would be a shame for him to die now just because they made the mistake of sending him in alone, thinking he would be safe.

Laura really should know by now that they’re _never_ safe.

She careens into the facility’s long hallway in time to see Stiles looking back and forth between a familiar red-haired nurse and Peter, on his feet like Laura hasn’t seen in years. The burns along the side of his face are the same as always, but his eyes are sharp and present. They leave Stiles to land on Laura instead and a smile twists his lips.

“Laura,” he says. “So nice to see you. It’s been too long.”

The memory of claws digging into her stomach comes back to her in a rush and her vision goes red.

“Apparently, not as long as I thought.”

It had all been so fast that night, so dark and chaotic, that Laura hadn’t seen the face of the wolf that attacked her. It never even occurred to her that it might’ve been her uncle. All this time, they were running around town searching frantically for a fully functional alpha werewolf. Why _would_ she suspect him?

Before Laura can ask, Derek’s snarl rips through the air. With one blow, the nurse hits the ground. Peter tuts at them.

“That’s not nice,” he tells Derek. “She’s my nurse.”

“She’s a psychotic bitch helping you kill people,” Derek throws back. Then, to Stiles, “Get out of the way.”

Stiles lets out a faint, “Oh, damn,” and scrambles to take up residence behind Derek’s broad back. Peter takes it all in with the detached interest of one watching a bug crawl across the pavement. It’s very different from the woods, feral and unhinged under the full moon’s light, and even more different from the uncle she remembers, shrewd and arrogant, yes, but not without warmth.

“You tried to kill me,” Laura says. “Your own niece. Your _family._ ”

Peter’s cold eyes narrow. “Family,” he drawls, acid in his tone. “What sort of _family_ leaves one of their own behind?”

“What else were we supposed to do?” The words get stuck on the lump in Laura’s throat, forcing their way past with a painful rasp. “The town was crawling with hunters waiting to finish what they started. If we’d stayed, we would’ve been—”

“And what about me?” Peter asked, head cocked. “Alone. Trapped. Defenseless.”

“Not a _threat._ You couldn’t hurt anyone the way you were,” Laura said, “and that meant that you were protected under the Code.”

Silkily, Peter said, “Yes, we all know how ironclad the precious Code is.”

Laura flushed, shame and grief welling up to choke her. “I didn’t know what else to do! I was eighteen and devastated and _scared,_ and it wasn’t like I could take care of you myself. You needed more help than I could give you. _This_ is where you were safest, Peter, and I wanted to keep you safe. But it wasn’t the safest place for _us._ We had to go.”

“So you went gallivanting off across the country. Meanwhile, here I was, locked inside the burned out husk of my failing body, slipping further and further from my sanity with every passing minute.” Peter’s smile is unnerving. “I was healing,” he says. “Cell by cell, I healed, until I hit a plateau. In the end, all I needed was a boost of power to finish the job.”

As they watch, the burns along his jaw begins to fade, waxy scar tissue receding to leave pale, unblemished new skin in its wake. A mere moment later, he is restored. If it wasn’t for his long hair, he could have stepped right out of Laura’s memories from before the fire. As if none of it ever happened.

“The alpha power,” Derek says, his voice tight with emotion. “You tried to kill Laura so that you could heal yourself.”

Laura raises her head high, heart pounding. “But you couldn’t kill me. It wasn’t my power you stole.”

“No,” Peter allows, even as his eyes light up a bloody red. “You proved frustratingly difficult to dispatch. I had to find another to serve my purpose. Luckily, high school teachers don’t get a lot of martial training.”

It takes a few seconds for Laura to make the connection, but when she does, her heart drops. “Mrs. Finch?” The biology teacher’s body was found a ways into the trees behind the lacrosse fields several days ago. An animal attack, according to authorities, of course. “I knew she was a werewolf, but not an alpha.”

Peter looks disappointed. “Alphas can hide their presence, Laura,” he says. “You should know this. I’m sure Talia taught you how.”

Laura swallows down the wave of revulsion that comes with hearing her mother’s name in that disdainful tone. “You killed an innocent woman,” she says. “You murdered her to save yourself.”

“I was out of my mind,” Peter bites out. “You have no idea what it was like.”

“Were you out of your mind when you bit Scott?” Stiles pipes up from over Derek’s shoulder. Immediately, he seems to think better of drawing attention to himself. It’s too late, though. Peter eyes him with a bit of curiosity.

“You must be Stiles,” he says. “Would you rather it have been you, Stiles? It could’ve been, you know. One beta is as good as another to a new alpha in need of a pack.”

Derek growls, reaching behind to shove Stiles further down the hallway, like that will be enough to keep him safe if Peter decides to attack. “You won’t be getting any more.”

“Now, now, Derek. There’s no need to be hostile.”

“Says the man who nearly eviscerated me,” Laura grits out.

Her own eyes are glowing now, claws at the ready. Part of her still screams that this is her uncle, his scent still carrying the comforting notes of family and home, but every animal instinct she has rebels against him. She knows, on every level of her being, that the person before her is a threat. No amount of sentiment and wishful thinking can erase that.

The first flicker of uncertainty crosses Peter’s face. Not fear—Peter was never prone to fear, even before the fire—but a wariness that has him eyeing them both very carefully. He may be an alpha, and he may be healed now, but there’s no way that he isn’t still weak. A fight with a stronger, healthier alpha _and_ her beta doesn’t have great odds, and he’s smart enough to know it.

“Let’s not be hasty,” he says, pasting on another smile. “It’s not as if we don’t have the same goal here.”

“Biting random teenagers and slaughtering innocent people?” Derek asks through a mouthful of fangs.

Peter’s smile disappears. “They weren’t innocent,” he says sharply. “Laura knows what they were guilty of. Don’t you?”

She thinks of the list she made when she started her investigation. All the people involved in the fire or its cover-up. A list she thought she lost, until the bodies started piling up, one after the other. Mountain lions with a very specific and coincidental taste for arsonists.

“What about the janitor, huh?” Stiles asks, apparently incapable of running _away_ from danger like a reasonable person. “At the school. The one you tore into pieces and left under the bleachers in the gym. What was _he_ guilty of, except for being in your way?”

“Stiles, get _out_ of here,” Derek snaps at him.

“Yes, Stiles,” Peter echoes. “Run along home before you get yourself hurt.”

“He’s not going to be the one getting hurt here,” Laura says, a growl roughening her voice.

Between one heartbeat and the next, she gathers her strength and _leaps._ It’s too abrupt for Peter to dodge, but he twists just enough to deflect the force of her attack. He stumbles but doesn’t fall, and Laura skids past him, claws digging into the linoleum to drag herself to a halt.

Derek’s quick to follow suit. Peter is prepared this time, though, and Derek is flung back with a force that reduces the nurse’s station to a pile of splinters. Stiles stumbles back, out of the way of the cloud of debris, and then surges forward again to help drag Derek free of the wreckage. Peter bears down on them, a snarl on his lips.

Laura doesn’t let him reach them. With a snarl of her own, she goes for Peter’s legs, raking her claws across the backs of his ankles. She gets a howl of pain for her efforts and Peter staggers. He lashes out and catches Laura across the chest before her next attack can land. It knocks the wind from her, but it doesn’t stop her from coming. Her next hit draws blood along Peter’s side before a hard blow connects with the side of her head.

For a moment, she can’t see. The red in her vision is blood now, rather than rage, and the world spins. By the time things stabilize, the hallway before her is empty. Smears of red show Peter’s path to the door, which hangs on its hinges. The unconscious nurse is starting to stir.

Derek limps to Laura’s side. “Should we go after him?”

He’s clutching at his side like maybe a rib or two is broken. Stiles hovers at his shoulder, wide-eyed, hands outstretched like he’s waiting for Derek to collapse. Laura’s ripped shirt is soaked through with blood, though the scratches are starting to heal already. Derek’s injuries will take longer.

With a grimace, Laura lets herself collapse against the wall. “No,” she says. “We need to regroup. Rest. Figure out where to go from here.”

Derek nods with obvious relief. This time, when Stiles offers his shoulder for support, Derek lets himself take it.

“So…” Stiles points at the nurse. “What are we gonna do about her?”

Laura sighs. “Fuck if I know.”

Everything hurts, and not just physically. She feels scraped raw all the way down to her bones. Her mind is fuzzy now with the adrenaline rush of battle fading and she can’t hold a thought in her head long enough to process it.

Derek’s hand finds her shoulder and squeezes. “Hey,” he says softly. “We’ll figure it out, okay?”

It’s the vaguest kind of platitude, but it still makes warmth settle in Laura’s chest. She lays her hand over Derek’s, squeezing back, and musters up a smile for her little brother.

“Yeah. We’ll figure it out.” 

**Author's Note:**

> [rebloggable on tumblr!](https://clotpolesonly.tumblr.com/post/629844721956749312/now-the-wheel-has-turned-around)


End file.
